{Review} Dark Heart of Magic (Black Blade #2) by Jennifer Estep

Posted by Melanie
Release Date: October 27th, 2015
Finished Date: December 4th, 2015

Publishers: K-Teen
Genre: YA, Fantasy, Paranormal, Romance
Source: For Review
Format: eARC

Pages: 368
Buy: Amazon UK / Amazon US / The Book Depo

There Be Monsters Here. . .

It's not as great as you'd think, living in a tourist town that's known as "the most magical place in America." Same boring high school, just twice as many monsters under the bridges and rival Families killing each other for power. 

I try to keep out of it. I've got my mom's bloodiron sword and my slightly illegal home in the basement of the municipal library. And a couple of Talents I try to keep quiet, including very light fingers and a way with a lock pick. 

But then some nasty characters bring their Family feud into my friend's pawn shop, and I have to make a call--get involved, or watch a cute guy die because I didn't. I guess I made the wrong choice, because now I'm stuck putting everything on the line for Devon Sinclair. My mom was murdered because of the Families, and it looks like I'm going to end up just like her. . .

The Review: I really enjoyed the second book in the Black Blade series, even more than the first!

Now that we know a little more about this world, it was very easy to slip right into it again and pick up where we left off. Lila has officially become part of the Sinclair family and has learned a good few things about herself and her parentage. She is still honing her abilities whilst trying to keep them secret which could become problematic when her boss chooses her to compete in the Tournament of Blades. In the tournament she will be pitted against not only her enemies but also her friends and that includes Devon whom she is still having mixed feelings about.

Weird things are beginning to happen around town though, demons are being forced out of their homes and into the city or worse! Murdered! Then once the tournament is underway – people start turning up dead, drained of blood…. Lila must get to the bottom of it all whilst keeping an eye on her charges, keeping an eye on herself and keeping an eye on Victor Draconi who has a few plots and plans up his sleeve that need to be revealed.

Lila became more self assured throughout this book and more mature, she seemed to weigh everything up, considered the outcomes and made decisions, which is unlike many characters we read about in this age range. For all she had made a connection with Devon in book one, I was glad that they didn’t just dive bomb into a relationship because I enjoy the simmer, the little moments where attraction and chemistry comes to the forefront of their minds and gives those special scenes that really get your heart invested in them. I do like them together, as I said, they have great chemistry, she seems to be on a very equal footing with him in her capabilities and that it nice to see – they complement each other rather than being dependant on each other.

I thought this was a fab sequel in the series and I loved the tournament storyline which gave it a very fantasy like feel. I like the mysteries that arose throughout the story, first off we have the dead demons that need seeing to – it may feel like this is not much of a story but just wait for the tie in. Then we have super spy/thief Lila in action as she goes in search of information and to see what certain people are up to…. What she discovers will be quite the eye opener and I really liked who we met because of that. We also have the tournament which would be awesome in its self, seeing the characters wield their powers in a combatant way and finding out who is the best amongst them but when you add to that someone sabotaging the challenge, contestants turning up dead…. It became excellent! and! To top it all off, Lila will learn some huge secrets about herself and her family which makes me really excited for the next book. Loved this! 

4.5 Flowers! 

Thank you to K-Teen for giving me the opportunity to review this book in exchange for an honest review. 

{Review} Cold Burn of Magic (Black Blade #1) by Jennifer Estep

Posted by Melanie
Release Date: April 28th, 2015
Finished Date: April 12th, 2015

Publishers: K-Teen
Genre: YA, Fantasy, Paranormal, Romance
Source: For Review
Format: eARC

Pages: 362
Buy: Amazon UK / Amazon US / The Book Depo

There Be Monsters Here. . .

It's not as great as you'd think, living in a tourist town that's known as "the most magical place in America." Same boring high school, just twice as many monsters under the bridges and rival Families killing each other for power. 

I try to keep out of it. I've got my mom's bloodiron sword and my slightly illegal home in the basement of the municipal library. And a couple of Talents I try to keep quiet, including very light fingers and a way with a lock pick. 

But then some nasty characters bring their Family feud into my friend's pawn shop, and I have to make a call--get involved, or watch a cute guy die because I didn't. I guess I made the wrong choice, because now I'm stuck putting everything on the line for Devon Sinclair. My mom was murdered because of the Families, and it looks like I'm going to end up just like her. . .

The Review: I really enjoyed the story, I thought it was quite different from what I usually read and gave me something fresh and new. The ‘family’ system that is a major part of the world building is very ‘mafia/mob’ like except with supernatural elements in the form of magical gifts. There are ‘families’ and there are an elite bunch of them that run the various parts of the city and commerce complete with a hierarchy and led by a ‘boss’ type figure. As with the mafia, there is rivalry among the families, power plays, assassinations, in fighting, alliances and such – to be associated with one of the these families is to have a certain kind of respect and safety. The city itself is a magical place, complete with every kind of species you could find in a fairy tale so this makes it a tourist hotspot and where the families earn most of their money. Most of the higher members have body guards and this is how Lila becomes involved with one such family.
I really liked Lila, I empathised with her straight away because she was so alone after having lost her mother 4 yrs previously. She was murdered and so Lila shields her heart, her feelings and her whole self from everyone. She squats in a library basement, thieving to make ends meet and that’s how she knows Mo, the only human contact she really lets in and the owner of a pawn shop. She’s quite happy with the solitude, she doesn’t want to end up with the families putting her life on the line for people she despises….. but that’s exactly what she ends up doing. She had a great attitude and sass about her that gave some comic relief to her situation and showed us that not everything gets her down. I liked the tentative relationship that seems to be blossoming with Devon, it seems like it will be one of those where it will be frowned upon but we will have to wait and see because it was just starting to become apparent in this. They do share a connection, they have chemistry and they have similar circumstances – the author does give us some little moments between them that gets the pulse racing but that’s it for now.
The story and pacing was great, there is a lot of action and fighting in this and I really enjoyed it. As I mentioned that with the families, there are assassination attempts aplenty and this book is very much focussed on someone wanting Devon dead and will stop at nothing. Lila becomes his guard after a bad fight when she comes to his aid after his other guard is killed in the line of duty, Lila does it selflessly and although it’s not what she wanted, ends up in the employ of one of the families. With the multiple attempts on Devon’s life we get to see what our characters are really capable of – in both fighting and magic using – and it was a good insight into what was going on with the families. There are a good few secrets being kept by multiple characters so it’s just a matter of letting the plot play out so they will be revealed and when they do… I wasn’t expecting some but I thought they were great and definitely added to the suspense of the story. I was very impressed with this first book, I thought it did a good job of building a believable world and inhabitants that were easily explained and understood. The characters were all likable and it was easy to read them and relate plus I ended up being interested in more characters than just Lila & Devon which is always good. The ending was satisfying but it also opened up a lot of questions that will keep you interested enough to want to pick the next book up – awesome start though! 

4.5 Flowers! 

Thank you to K-Teen for giving me the opportunity to review this book in exchange for an honest review.